


Why me?!

by TempusNoKitsune



Category: X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Charles Is a Big Dorkface, Charles-centric, Erik Has Feelings, Erik is Crushing Harder than a 12-year Old Girl, Honestly Charles What Are You Thinking, M/M, Protective Erik
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-06
Updated: 2017-01-06
Packaged: 2018-09-15 08:30:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,348
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9226775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TempusNoKitsune/pseuds/TempusNoKitsune
Summary: Charles is 19 when he realises that he doesn’t just like the man, but that he was, in fact, in love with his sister’s long time boyfriend, and his first thought is:“Well shit.”





	

    Charles is 19 when he realises that he doesn’t just like the man, but that he was, in fact, in love with his sister’s long time boyfriend, and his first thought is:

    “Well shit.”

    And he probably says that aloud, but that’s alright because he’s currently alone in his room, laying on his bed and imaging Erik cuddling him. And...shit.

    Really, he thinks, there’s nothing left to do but call in backup. He tiredly grabs at his phone, fully intending to contact someone that was good for his health. But Moria, his former girlfriend - the one that made everyone think that he was completely straight, but they both knew better than that - had just started college, and was likely to be in night classes at the time.

    He pursed his lips, rolling onto his stomach and thumbing through his rather depressingly sparse contacts. Even more depressingly, many of them would never even be texted or called since he wasn't particularly close or interested in any but about 6 of them, two of which were his sister and the offending boyfriend.

    Charles let his forehead fall to the mattress, making a high pitched whining noise as he thought more about it.

    Dear lord he was such a creep. What was he doing? How could he be in love with his sister’s 27 YEAR OLD BOYFRIEND.

    Oh God, somebody just end his misery now. Please.

    It was at that very moment that his phone buzzed in his limp hand, making his head pop up, the silky brown mop of hair spreading haphazardly over his eyes and impairing his vision. And it was probably the very last person that he needed right now, but really he didn’t much have the luxury of deciding that- his busy mind said.

    Instead of actually answering the question that had come through in the text, he simply texted back:

_Can you come over?_

It only takes a minute before he gets a text back that makes the edges of his mouth curl.

_Of course babe, I’ll bring the chocolates_

_The caramel kind?_

_Who do you think I am?_

_Good_

_5 minutes_

 

    It only takes two, and he’s popping oversized caramel chocolate into his mouth, licking his lips as the sweets melted, leaving him giving a contenting little sound.

    So there he is, straddling his friend, Tony’s, lap. Sharing chocolates and lonely kisses like they do, when Erik shows up to meet Raven at their house after she gets home from work. In mere seconds the man has stormed over, yanking Charles off of Tony’s lap and pulling him into his chest with one strong arm before forcefully kicking Tony out.

    Charles feels like he’s going to cry, not realizing that he probably looked like he was going to as Erik framed his face with strong hands, chiding him, before taking in Charles’s watery eyes and backing off just slightly.

    “What did you think you were doing?!”

    It was much more gentle than the other’s voice had been just a bit before, but it still grated on Charles’s already frayed and sensitive nerves nonetheless.

    “Why does it matter?” He bit back. “You’re not family, you’re not- not- you-...”

    And he couldn’t think of any name that would fit how Erik made him feel, and there was no way in hell that he was going to reveal that he was actually in love with man that his sister had been dating for a few years now.

    “Just leave me alone! Go ahead and take my only family away and get out of my life!”

    Charles was near screaming at the end as the tears stinging his eyes slid down his cheeks. And he couldn’t stand there any more, couldn’t take it, couldn’t stand it. He was almost near shaking with emotion, a harsh chill settling over him as he thought about the truth of the statement. This only made more tears come, and in the split second between his screaming statement and his hasty retreat, he managed to let Erik see far too many emotions.

    The trip to his room felt almost surreal, and part of him was hoping for a concerned Erik to follow him up, but his door slammed shut without a hitch, his bed squeaking fitfully under his weight as he buried his face into the fluffy sheets, letting the plethora of emotions overtake him, shaking near uncontrollably until he fell slowly to sleep.

 

…

 

    When he woke up it was the weekend, and that was like 16 hours of glorious sleep. But his spirits quickly fell with thoughts of what had happened just that last night.

    He let out a heavy sigh and rolled from his bed to his feet. Of course he was harsh and impulsive with what he had said, and he may be very mature for his age, but he’s still a teenager. However, the last thing that he wanted was for Erik to get out of his life, no, he would actually like Erik to be in it a whole lot more, thank you. But considering that Erik didn’t even bother to say anything back, let alone follow him up to his room, such a sentiment was supposedly very unlikely looking towards the future.

    Charles dropped his head to his hands, letting out a low groan. To figure out that the things that he felt for the wan was nothing other than love, and to tell  that same man to get out of his life in the same day was just something that he would do, and probably why he didn’t seem to really have any friends.

    But he didn’t really have the time or strength to think about it much more. It made his head spin and his eyes burn. His throat close and his whole body to go cold. A shower would do him good, he decided. A nice refreshing shower to drive and melt away all of the bad things that he could.

    After showering, for maybe an hour - they had the money, so why not use it? - he made himself tea and grabbed some bread, not even bothering to toast it as he spread jam on each of the three pieces.

    Charles shoved the food in his mouth unceremoniously, and despite the overall cleansing shower, began to think about Erik. About how the man had stormed through this very kitchen to, “defend his honour”... It was sweet now that he was thinking about it, but at the time it had only hurt to be pulled tightly into the other’s strong chest. Good lord he was in far too deep.

    He knew that he’d had a crush on th man since the first day that he saw him, but really, who wouldn’t? Erik was beautiful, like above and beyond handsome. And after nearly two years of knowing the man, such a crush had grown to the point of Charles realizing that he was in love with Erik, and not just in the far stages of a too long crush.

    So, not just washing Erik away with a warm shower then. No, it was time to plan, time to devise the sort of multi step project that Raven claimed made him a spawn of Satan.

    Charles’s mouth curled up deviously. He knew just what to start with.

    Now...he thought as he climbed the wide and spiraling stairs, where were those old skinny jeans?

 

…

 

    Charles has written out physically his action steps towards, “Getting into Erik’s Good Graces”. However, after all of that careful planning, he never even got the chance to wear his skinny jeans.

    Erik and Raven had an awful fight, one that had Erik storming out of the house after yelling match, as a very upset Raven locked herself in her room. And Charles was concerned, because Erik seemed terribly upset- and Raven too...ah, he was either an absolutely horrible brother, or he was in even deeper than he had initially thought.

    He walked cautiously to Raven’s room, knocking gently on the door.

    “Raven?”

    The door slowly opened after a few minutes, and really, Raven doesn’t look all that upset. But after spending a childhood with her, he knew better than to just assume.

    “How are you doing?” He asked gently. Leaning forward slightly, more into her space, knowing that she particularly liked to be touched when in a bad mood. She thrived on it, gained energy from others in a way.

    She pulled him close, her arms tight around his shoulders. He lifted his arms awkwardly, unsure of what to do besides trying to rub soothing circles on her back.

    “You okay?”

    “When did you stop being my baby brother?” She mumbled into his hair.

    And now he was terribly confused. He thought that this had been about Erik, not him. He and Raven were actually in quite good graces with each other at this point in time, he can’t think of anything that he may have done to upset that fragile balance.

    “What?”

    She pulled away them, making a come here motion as she sat back on her bed.

    “You probably heard that me and Erik had a fight.”

    “Um...I mean…”

    “No, I know we were loud...but you probably didn’t hear what we were saying huh?”

    He shook his head, easing down close enough next to her that their legs touched, and she grabbed his hand tightly, giving him a little smile before her expression quickly soured.

    “I found Erik hiding a butt load of pictures of you, like he was trying to keep them away from me.”

    And holy shit. The very tips of his ears burning at the thought. Erik...picture...him...his head began spinning and he felt almost giddy at the thought. And he was definitely a terrible brother.

    She made a face. “I can’t believe he’d do something like that...” But there was something hiding there, not like he really noticed it, he was too busy being thrilled.

     The hallelujah chorus was sounding off in Charles’s head. Well...maybe not the best way to find out that Erik may, in fact, return his feelings.  But holy shit.

    He just nodded quietly, not really trusting his voice at the moment. He wrapped his arms around her in some semblance of comfort, and it was very obvious that she was upset, so he cleared his mind, and focused on his sister. They ended up laying back, and falling asleep curled up with one another, much like they did when they were much younger.

    The last thought running through his mind was, for Erik, Was it lust or love? Or was it even anything at all?

 

 ...

 

        Over the next few days Raven is acting even more strange than usual, and of course he's noticed her slightly off behavior for a while, but he hadn't really paid it much mind. Now she was stealing sideways glances at him, watching him while he was writing, reading, watching the TV. Everything he did, she was right there around the corner.

        After a few days he made it his duty to try and mend whatever break had come between his sister and Erik...especially since he felt as though it was somehow his fault. So thus began his running project of slipping in something good about Erik at every point that he got the chance. Things about Erik's more than handsome physique, about his intelligence, about his unusually caring manner, about- what there was to love about him.

       When he would talk about things like that Raven would become suddenly terribly interested in whatever he was saying. She would lean forward slightly, arms crossed on the surface in front of her, and hand propping up her chin. Sometimes her eyes would seem to glaze over slightly, but she would come back into attention, smiling like a crazy person.

       When she started agreeing with him and offering things back that he would in turn agree with, he figured that he had done something right. So he had fixed things here, all they needed now was Erik...

…

 

    Erik comes over to their house at the end of the month, when supposedly both he and Raven had adequately calmed down. Though he likely didn’t expect for Charles to open the door, and there was a flash of something before the closed off and slightly shameful look on his face.

    “Charles who is-...Oh.”

    “Raven.” Erik spoke quietly, but strongly as he always did.

    “Come in.”

    The two of them had been talking a lot. He and Raven. And in some way, he had helped to cool her down, telling her about all of the things he loved about Erik, and hoped didn’t give away his love fully.

    It’s very quiet for a little while. No one talks, they just sit and stare at one another, and really he didn’t think it could get any more awkward than it had been with just Raven.

    “So Erik...how have you been?” He asked, trying to break the ice.

    “Fine.”

    Well...damn.

    “Anyone want tea? I’m going to get some tea.”

    Of course, no one else really wants tea, so he goes just more himself, hoping to come back to more dissolved tension. However, he walked into the two closer together speaking in hurried and some angry whispers.

    “Does this mean we’ve made up?”And boy does he regret talking..

    The talking stops right away, both of their eyes now trained on his tea holding form, staring unwaveringly at him.

    “What?”

    Raven leaned away from Erik and quickly leaned forward, that devilish look in her eye that was all too familiar to him.

    “Erik is in love with you!”

    “RAVEN.”

    Said man was now turning a horrified look his sisters way, and Charles was completely frozen.

    Erik...love...him...and much like he often texted Moira about the man. He was left speechless and slightly in awe.

    “Well that’s good.” He found himself taking. Why was he talking? Stop Charles stop! “Because I’m in love with him as well.”

    Raven barked out a laugh. "I KNEW IT."


End file.
